Full Circle

Full Circle is a project that arose from a joint venture with David Carson, a long time colleague and the co-author of “Medicine Cards.” When we re-connected, in the early 90’s, I wanted to work with David on something that would combine his knowledge and my skill. The point was to disseminate the knowledge that lives in native philosophy.

We began work on a proto-type deck of cards, but after David mentioned the concept and discussed some of the sketches with friends, he decided that he could not proceed. His reasons were complex; but apparently several native-American tribes took extreme exception to this project, which involved someone without enough native blood. I’m only a very small part Lakota Sioux, and while David is half Cherokee – it was not enough to sway the people.

In order to not tread on the philosophy of peoples already so abused by this society, I decided to go further back: 15,000 years to the time of the shamans and the time of the Caves of Lascaux. The point of the ‘dancers’ in this project is to connect us all to our common beginnings – in order to re-discover some of that precious human balance that we seem to have lost. The still unfinished project is called “The Circle of the Ancients.”